
69
THURSDAY
May 24
Hope of Everlasting Life
No matter who we are, how rich, how powerful, how beautiful, how
famous, we all face death. Medicine, diet, and exercise only can delay
the inevitable. No matter our backgrounds, our education, our race,
creed, or color, death always gets us. Life here, in and of itself, is
always a losing proposition. Kind of tough, if you think about it: going
through life, struggling with trials, tragedy, sickness, disappointment,
only to have the one thing we fear the most, death, be the only sure
way to end those trials.
Fortunately, the Bible shows us what nature, science, history, and
philosophy never can: that death does not have the final word. On the
contrary, thanks to Jesus, life, eternal life, is how the story ends for
those who accept Christ as their Lord and Savior.
Read
1 Corinthians 15:51-58 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. In your
own words, write down what promise and hope are found for us in
these verses.
____________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
In this world, itself offering no answer to death, it’s nice to know
that there is an answer, and it’s found in Jesus. It’s nice to know that
death is not the end; it’s not a long dreaded night that never comes to
a morning. The grave is not a prison from which there’s no deliver-
ance. Jesus Christ went into the grave and came out triumphant; and,
thanks to His triumph over death, we will triumph over it too. That’s
how powerful Christ’s ministry was, that’s how efficacious it is for us;
even death can’t beat it.
This is the hope that we find in the Bible, where the story of Jesus
and what He has done for us, and what He will do for us, is found. In
the Bible we find the answer to life’s hardest question, and that is
death. Even more so, in the Bible we find the hope that death doesn’t
have to be the last stop.
Imagine what life would be like if you believed that everything
ended, forever, at death. How differently would your life be
no
w? Ho
w differently would you act? What reasons could you
give for going on living if, in the end, you knew it would all come
to nothing? How should the hope of eternal life influence how
you live now?